“You and Israel”: Bianca Lechevalier-Haïm

Israel constituted for me, from my discovery of it in 1961, an encounter that overwhelmed me. It is a place where my identity takes root in an authentic way, both carnally and spiritually. I then began to learn Hebrew, and I have always kept it up. I made summer stays to work on my Hebrew. I thus attended the courses of the University of Jerusalem, where, before the first Intifada, I was able to attend a lecture by Ziyad Abu Zayyad, translated by an English colleague and friend. It is certain that the context of Israeli society was not the same in those days. Since the death of Rabin, many hopes for peace have been lost. I still feel close to Israeli friends who, at present, represent a very pessimistic minority (as much with regard to the Israelis as to the Palestinians).¹

Since 1990 I have been a member of the board of a Franco-Israeli professional association that organizes congresses alternately in Israel and in France. The first took place in Israel at the beginning of the Gulf War.

My professional research and writings do not directly concern Israel. Some of them are centred on the consequences of the Shoah on the descendants of the exterminated and on the transmission of trauma.

The existence of Israel represents the possible return to a “Hebrew” identity, renewed, revisited, and enriched by the intercultural polyphony brought by the diaspora.

The disappearance of Israel is for me unthinkable! Finally, as an aside, I will mention that at this very moment my grandson is playing in Central America, in the garden of his grandfather Rodriguez-Espinosa, with his cousin born of a mother of Palestinian origin (from Jerusalem).

Notes